It was developed by Vickers-Armstrongs in response to Specification B.35/46 issued by the Air Ministry for a nuclear-armed jet-powered bomber. The Valiant was the first of the V bombers to become operational, and was followed by the Handley Page Victor and the Avro Vulcan. The Valiant was the only V bomber to have dropped live nuclear weapons (for test purposes). In 1962, in response to advances in Soviet Union surface-to-air missile (SAM) technology, the V-force fleet including the Valiant changed from high-level flying to flying at low-level to avoid SAM attacks that they would have received if they were flying at high altitudes. In 1964 it was found that Valiants showed fatigue and crystalline corrosion in wing rear spar attachment forgings. In late 1964 a repair programme was underway, but a change of Government led to the new Minister of Defence Denis Healey deciding that the Valiant should be retired from service, and this happened in early 1965. The Victor and Vulcan V-bombers remained in service until the 1980s. The Valiant had a shoulder-mounted wing and four Rolls-Royce Avon RA.3 turbojet engines, each providing up to 6,500 pounds-force (29 kN) of thrust, installed in pairs in fireproof bays in each wing root.[42] The design of the Valiant gave an overall impression of a clean aircraft with swept-wing aerodynamics. George Edwards described the Valiant appropriately and simply as an "unfunny" aircraft. The root chord thickness ratio of 12% allowed the Avon engines to be within the wing rather than on pods as in the contemporary Boeing B-47. This "buried engine" installation contributed to the aircraft's aerodynamic cleanness, and was British practice at the time. It made engine access for maintenance and repair difficult and increased the risk that an uncontained failure of one engine would cause damage to the adjacent engine; it also increased the complexity of the design of the main spar which had to be routed around the engines. Number built 107 For details of the development, design, operational history and variants, click here.
